


Learning To Live Again, Together

by silveradept



Category: Final Fantasy XIII Series
Genre: Adult Hope, Domestic...and not, Hope's Got a Crush, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 23:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16842988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: There's still a lot more to do after the fall of Cocoon. And they've been together this long, so why not stay together a little longer? There's still kids to be raised, food to be had, people to be saved. It's the little things that keep them together. And infuriate them.





	Learning To Live Again, Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TereziMakara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TereziMakara/gifts).



Hope thinks he noticed it first.

He's wrong, but that's because Vanille has a lot more experience in observing things like that.

Vanille also rarely ever says anything about what she observes.

"That's odd," Hope said, as he and Vanille played a game of hot potato, volleying an old food container back and forth with their low-power magic spells.

"Hmm?" Vanille said, feigning concentration on the task in front of her.

"I've seen Lightning perform that combination on all sorts of monsters and opponents, but when she fights Fang, she changes it," Hope said.

"Changes it how?" Vanille prompted, spiking the food container at a sharp angle.

"She aims the last blow lower when sparring with Fang," Hope said, cushioning the spike with air and then launching it back at Vanille.

"And you're sure about that?" Vanille said, catching the container in a fire blast that changed its direction back toward Hope.

"Yes. When she spars with everyone else, Lightning aims for the head. With Snow, I think she really tries to hit him," Hope said, trying to push the container back to Vanille with ice.

When the container exploded under the stress, Hope and Vanille both started laughing after the shock had worn off.

"Hope's beginning to notice the crush that Lightning has had on you for years," she told Fang later, trying to time it so that Fang would spit out the water she had just drank at the revelation.

Fang swallowed and thoughtfully considered a response, denying Vanille the satisfaction.

"Is he aware of his own crush yet?" she deadpanned.

"No. He still thinks he's interested in Snow as a surrogate father," Vanille offered.

"We're getting to be quite the family," Fang said, smiling. "I would be been happy with just you, but it seems so much better to have everyone here."

"Also, less crystal stasis," Vanille quipped. She'd always had Fang, and had expected to stay in stasis, holding up Cocoon forever, but she had Sazh to thank for engineering supports to go along with the crystal and making it possible for them to be extracted and then removed from her crystal body.

"Dajh helped," Sazh had told her, every inch the proud father at his son's accomplishments. "It's been a godsend having everyone here. It's been so long since I had to physically keep track of my son that I forgot he likes to explore everywhere and get into everything. Every time I lose sight of him, I hear Lightning or Fang telling him not to wander off. Or physically stopping him from wandering off. Maybe if I had one of them as a wife, or mother to Dajh, or had all of you as family from the start, this wouldn't have been so difficult."

Vanille hadn't said anything then, although she knew pretty well what Fang's thoughts on the matter would have been. She couldn't speak for Lightning, and she didn't really feel like it was her place to, either.

Family. She'd had that on Oerba. So had Fang. Before. Before the first time they'd been frozen in those crystals. And then waking up to find the world had changed.

"Love?" Fang said, disturbing the memories that had threatened to overtake her.

Vanille turned on her "everything is fine" smile.

Fang glared. "Now I know something is wrong. Tell me."

"Family," Vanille said. "Do you think we'll ever have that again?"

Fang rested Vanille's head in her lap. "We have each other. And maybe we're starting to build one here, too."

"Will the village sing again, or dance? We can't exactly fill it up ourselves," Vanille said.

"We've got a good start," Fang said, ruffling Vanille's hair. "If it's tended well, I think we'll have a really nice crop of family soon."

Vanille sat up and was about to say thanks when she heard loud voices nearby, punctuated by the sounds of weapons exchange.

"You are _not_ marrying my sister looking like that!" Lightning shouted as bolts of her namesake flashed down from the sky at Snow, who was tanking the lightning, blue aura absorbing the bolts before they could touch down.

"Why not?" Snow shrugged. "This outfit has always made me look ruggedly handsome, if I do say so myself."

"You look like a cute child playing at being a grownup," Lightning retorted. " _I_ would look better in a suit than you would at this point."

"It's a bet, then," Snow said. "Sazh and Hope can judge. Also, I'm flattered you think I'm cute. Are you sure it's just your sister that's interested in my body?"

Lightning got a gleam in her eye that Vanille recognized as her "murder face," and Odin's crystal appeared in her hand.

"Let's not be hasty," Fang said, stepping between them. "Bad form to kill the groom before his wedding day."

"Snow," Hope said, running up to the group, "Serah needs your help with something."

"Catch you later, Sis," Snow said, running off in the direction Hope came from.

"Nice timing," Vanille murmured.

"Murder face," Hope murmured back, and Vanille had to keep herself from laughing until Fang had led Lightning away from the scene.

"Is that what you call it, too?" Hope said, confused at the laughter.

"Not to her face," Vanille said, still giggling.

"It's nice that they're finally having a ceremony," Hope said, sighing a little. "It's been a long time since Lightning said yes that I worried she was using the planning as yet another way to put it off or make Snow give up. After everything we went through to get to this point, it didn't seem fair for Snow to not get to marry his love."

"Life isn't always...fair," Vanille said, touching the word lightly. "Lots of people who were branded didn't complete their Focus, and many who did are still locked away in crystal. We...got lucky, I suppose. We have each other."

"Yeah," Hope said, although he didn't sound completely sure about it. "There's nobody else who really understands what we went through. We all lost the families we had. Some of us because of the people we then had to work with to save the world."

Hope turned to Vanille.

"Do you think it's possible to like and hate someone at the same time?" he said.

Vanille nodded. "I think so," she said. "It takes time and effort for feelings to change. It's much easier to stay mad at someone forever. Especially when that's what your Focus is, essentially."

"Sorry," Hope apologized. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm...confused, I guess. Everyone else seems to have an idea of what they're doing and who they want to do it with. Snow has Serah, you have Fang, Sazh has Dajh, and Lightning wouldn't admit to wanting to stay with any of us, but I think she needs us."

Hope sighed and reclined into the grass.

"I'm the only person who isn't attached," he said to Vanille.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Lightning said, walking up to them, much calmer than before. "We've all been through a lot. Together. Dajh appreciates having a friend he can talk to who knows what he's been through. Snow sees you as the son he doesn't have yet."

"What if I don't want to be seen as a kid any more?" Hope snapped.

"I think that might be..." Lightning faltered, looking for a way to express her opinion less bluntly than what she was thinking.

"...not the wisest choice," Vanille finished, opting for only a little bit less blunt than Lightning.

Hope glared at both of them.

"Soldiers, l'cie, resistance fighters, sometimes more than one of these things, all together," Lightning pointed out, "has a way of making you grow up fast. We can't...undo the past."

Hope scowled.

"After all we've been through," he said, standing up, "I thought you might start thinking of me as an equal. I guess I was wrong." Hope walked off.

"That could have gone better," Lightning said.

"You're still learning," Vanille said, turning to watch Hope.

"Learning what?" Lightning asked.

"How to be a big sister again," Vanille said.

"And what would you know about that?" Lightning said testily.

"More than you think," Vanille said, continuing to lounge. "But you can ask Fang about it instead while the two of you work out your aggression at not being able to protect everybody."

Vanille knew it was sharp, it would sting, and it would hurt. But she also knows that Lightning will mention it, trying to be casual about how much it hurt her, and Fang will start telling stories about Oerba and protecting Vanille, which will lead to stories about Lightning protecting Serah, and by the end of it, they'll probably be kissing rather than talking.

Lightning had a response ready, but Fang's arrival derails it and the two of them get to training fairly soon afterward. Perhaps with a little more effort than usual.

"Where do you think you're going?" Fang asked as Vanille took a few steps in the direction Hope went. "You're going to train with us today. Lightning thinks you're getting a little soft in the body."

Vanille turned around, smiling far too sweetly for it to be genuine.

"Did she, now?" she said, cracking her wand loudly. "I didn't think you enjoyed being whipped, Lightning."

Hope, when Sazh asked about what was going on, thought the sounds of the combat from where he had left were particularly loud this time around, but nothing else was out of the ordinary.

"Hope!" Dajh called, waving him over and breaking Sazh's inquiry. "Look!"

Hope followed Dajh's pointing finger at what looked to be a herd of migrating turtles.

"Best not to get too close, Dajh," Sazh said. "Riling them up can cause some pretty bad quakes."

"I know, Dad," Dajh said. "But they're pretty to watch."

"Yeah, they are," Sazh said, sitting down on a nearby hill. Hope joined him.

"I just want him to be a child," Sazh said, watching Dajh run. "If he can forget, even for a moment, all the tragedy and the terror, then it will have been worth it."

"Why?" Hope asked. "Why would you want to forget it? It's part of who we are."

"If you like who you are," Sazh said quietly. "I lost my wife. I let my child run off for a bit, and he became a l'cie. Then, when I tried to rescue him, I became a l'cie. And...I almost gave in to despair more than a few times. I want Dajh to think of his father as strong and capable. I can't do that if I'm always reminded of what I couldn't do. And soon enough, he'll be grown up and...he'll know. About us, about what happened, about how dangerous it is out there."

"So you want to shield him from that?" Hope asked skeptically.

"I want him to not have to care about those things. I want him to be a child for a long as he can be. To not have to worry about a time when his dad might not be here. Or to have to figure out how to live in this world by himself."

"I didn't get that chance," Hope said.

"No, you didn't," Sazh responded. "But I'm grateful you're here all the same, because Dajh has someone to talk to about his experience. Being a l'cie as a kid, and getting hunted and used by the fal'cie while being separated from your family, and your mother gone...those are things that I will never understand as well as you will, Hope. It's...heartening to know that Dajh can ask you about it. Or tell you about it. And you'll know."

"I guess I never thought of it that way," Hope said. "I still feel like I'm being treated as a child I never felt like."

"Hope! Look at you, you've grown up into a fine man," Snow said, interrupting the peaceful scene. Snow was limping slightly as he approached.

"Nora would be proud of you," Snow said, studying Hope seriously.

"You're the last person I would believe about that, Snow," Hope said acidly. "What did you do?" he added, seeing Snow's gait.

"Oh, nothing," Snow said. "Got in a disagreement with a couple Behemoths about who was going to be dinner tonight."

Hope and Sazh gave Snow a look expressing their collective disbelief.

"Okay, so I saved a family from being eaten, and I couldn't use my magic to heal myself without frightening them," Snow said in exasperation. "Sometimes being the hero isn't all glory and parades."

"That's better," Hope said, the hints of a smile curling at his lips. "Come here, sit down, keep an eye on Dajh, and let me heal you."

"Yes, sir," Snow said, trying to snap to a salute that ended in him toppling over when his bad leg buckled underneath him.

Hope rolled his eyes, the smile breaking through his attempts at being serious.

"I see why Serah likes you so much," Hope said, calling up the magic that would heal the bruises and mend the muscles. "And why Lightning doesn't like you equally as much."

"I'll win them both over eventually," Snow said confidently, wincing as the magic did its work.

Not too soon after Hope finished with Snow, Lightning, Vanille, and Fang came over and laid down across the already reclining trio, tired from their training exercises.

Not all that soon afterward, everyone had become a tangled set of limbs and bodies all watching the light dim on Pulse before night fell. Nobody was sure who noticed it first, but as each of them noticed, they decided they liked it a lot better with all of them together than trying to separate themselves from the pile. It felt a little strange, having all of these people that cared about each other, in all the tangled ways that they did, but it also felt nice. Like a family.

"Tomorrow," Vanille said, "I'm teaching you all how to dance."


End file.
